I decided yesterday while I was at the grocery store, after market, to try Nancy Silverton's recipe for focaccia. I had seen the recipe on the web awhile ago, but then my local supermarket's had stopped selling fresh yeast. I guess since it is nearer to Christmas that my local supermarkets are now carrying cake yeast again because of baking for Christmas. I didnít know when I was at market I was going to try this recipe, and donít have any of my round steel pans at home, so I guess I will either have to use my 11Ēx17Ē blue steel pan, my aluminum cake pans, or either try to make regular pizzas out of the dough at home. I am not sure which would be the best way to try.

I did mix what is called the sponge this morning with fresh yeast. I will mix the final dough when the sponge bubbles enough. I am not sure how a sponge is supposed to look when it bubbles, but will watch it.

This is the recipe for Nancy Silvertonís focaccia if anyone is interested.

I thought I would made the focaccia tomorrow morning, but the sponge is really bubbling so I guess I have to make them tonight. I am ready to do the final mix. That sponge took off in such a short while since I last posted. The amount of fresh yeast is also a lot in the final mix. I have no idea how this is going to turn out.

This is how the Nancy Silvertonís focaccia dough is going so far. Hopefully it soon will bake okay. The dough does smell very good. Since my cake pans arenít big enough, I cut off a pie of dough, balled it and then floured it and now it is in the freezer to try on Tuesday for a regular pizza.

The Nancy Silvertonís turned out okay. The dough was very soft and could be handled easily. The dough had a great smell before baking. With all the fresh yeast added in the final dough the dough does rise quickly, two different times. In the proof in the pans the dough also rose quickly. I forgot to dimple the dough when in the cake pans, but did press the tomatoes, olives, and other ingredients into the dough.

The Nancy Silvertonís focaccia dough did bake well, but if I would have had a choice I think I would have used steel pans for the bake, or a dark colored pan.

The finished crumb was very light and airy. They werenít any really big air bubbles, but the ones that formed during baking made the crumb light and very tender to eat. The tasted of the crumb was also very good. This morning the leftover slices still are very soft.

When I make this dough again, I would start the sponge later in the day or probably in the evening. As I posted before the sponge wanted to bubble very fast last evening. I had used my mini-measuring spoons for the sponge and use 1/8 teaspoon of fresh yeast in the sponge. I still wasnít sure if the sponge bubbled enough, but to me it looked like it did. I donít have any experience with sponges as a preferment.

I still have the small dough ball to try at market for a regular pizza. It will stay frozen until Monday.

Nice job Norma. Would you do the recipe the same next time or maybe cut back on the yeast ?

Jeff,

Thanks! I donít think I would cut back on the yeast, but would start the sponge at a different time. It said in the recipe that the sponge can be used anywhere from 12-24 hrs. after mixing, but since I didnít know how the sponge would be if I waited another 12 hrs., that is why did the final mix last evening and also baked the focaccia. Someone that knows more how the sponge would look after another 12 hrs. maybe could know if the sponge could have lasted that long before mixing it into the final dough. I was worried if I waited the sponge might not work. My room temperature was about 70 degrees F where I let the sponge ferment.

I think the only thing I would change is to use a different pan (probably steel) and remember to dimple the dough. I will be trying the recipe again, but donít know when.

Norma, That looks great! I am curious, did the rye flavor ever come through at all and how did this recipe compare to her pizza recipe flavor-wise? Both formulas seem pretty similar.

Jimmy,

Thanks! I used dark rye in the formulation and I couldnít taste any rye flavor in the finished focaccia. I still didnít get the Mozza pizza recipe right. In the near future I want to try fresh yeast in the Mozza pizza recipe. I will add fresh yeast in the poolish and the final dough. When I find time to mix the Mozza pizza dough for home use, I will try it out to see how similar they are. I have no idea how that would work out in my home oven because my home oven doesnít get very high in temperature. I have the extra focaccia dough ball to try at market tomorrow. I want to see if the focaccia dough ball bakes any different when it is make into a pizza. It probably will bake different because it wonít be baked in a pan.

Norma, One thing that might be kind of interesting if you get the itch, omitted the rye and added back the same amount of BF to see what effect the rye has on flavor, texture, etc in the final product. Given the small amount in the formula I wouldn't think that it is contributing much of anything to the dough, but I could be wrong.

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Norma, One thing that might be kind of interesting if you get the itch, omitted the rye and added back the same amount of BF to see what effect the rye has on flavor, texture, etc in the final product. Given the small amount in the formula I wouldn't think that it is contributing much of anything to the dough, but I could be wrong.

Jimmy,

That would be an interesting experiment to leave out the rye flour to see what happens. I also thought about adding more rye (and less BF) and maybe wheat germ to see if the focaccia is anything like the Mozza pizza. I really donít think the small amount of rye is contributing much either. At least with all the fresh yeast that is added to the final dough the focaccia did rise.

This was the extra frozen dough ball from the Nancy Silvertonís focaccia I had left from Saturday evening. I left the dough ball defrost since yesterday when I went to market in the deli case. The pizza made out of the same dough as the two focaccia I made sure turned out a lot different.

The crumb was really light, airy, moist, and did taste very good. The same dough baked two different ways can turn out very different. We all enjoyed this different pizza.